Saturday, December 17, 2011

Quick Build - Fiji Fixie

I laid my hands on this Fuji road bike a while back with the intention of building a fixed gear out of it. I was walking the dog and saw it in disrepair in some guy's yard, so I knocked on the door and asked if he wanted to sell it. $80 later, I was on my way!

Original Build

Some of the things I was looking for in this bike were:

- a 56cm -58cm frame size

- Aluminum rims

- Three piece crank with a European threaded bottom bracket

- A crank with removable chainrings

- No major rusting

Preparing the Rim for Dishing

As I was preparing the bike for disassembly, I sprayed the rear rim and spokes with WD-40. This was to loosen any tightness in the spoke nipples. When dishing a wheel, you end up turning the spokes, and one stripped spoke can be a real hassle! This will ensure they cooperate.

Leftovers

Here are all the parts removed:

- Front and rear derailleur

- Rear brake

- Brake levers

- All cables

- Pedals

- Shifters (were mounted on the stem)

- Kickstand

- Seat

- Tires

- Reflectors

Removing this stuff made the bike lighter and more simple.

Rim, dished

You can see here how the hub has been shifted toward the drive side, moving the freewheel/fixed cog into alignment with the front chainring. This is accomplished by removing the casette, pulling the axle out and flipping it over. Once this is complete, the rim needs to be shifted back to the center of the wheel by tightening/loosening the spokes. Diagram follows...

Steps to Dishing a Rim

1. The freewheel/fixed cog attaches close to the hub, and the chain is mis-aligned

2. After flipping the axle over, the chain is aligned properly, but the rim is now not centered in the frame

3. By tightening spokes on one side, and loosening them on the other, the rim shifts back to center (the actual 'dishing')

That was about it, I put on some new grips, a seat, handlebars and a brake lever I had laying around, a fixed cog and new tires and it was ready to go.

Final build!

Bike - $80

Seat - $20

Grips - $10

Tires - $30

Cog - $30

Chain - $20

Beer - $10

Bars, brake lever, pedals, Toe Clips - N/A

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Total Cost: $200

Goes to show you that with a couple hundred dollars and some patience, you can set up a pretty decent bike!